We like the thin and light design of the 8X, which comes in four different colours. Its rounded edges and smooth curving back give it a svelte look, while the rubbery finish is pleasant to the touch and aids grip.

The buttons sit almost entirely flush with the shell, making them difficult to locate without looking. Limited travel means it's hard to know when you've pressed one properly.

HTC has opted for the same core components as Nokia's new Lumia duo for the Windows Phone 8X, namely a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of memory.

We weren't surprised, then, to find performance decent and up to the same level as its rivals.

Storage is reasonable at 16GB but there's no microSD card slot for expansion.

The main hardware feature of the HTC Windows Phone 8X is the excellent 720x1280 screen. At 4.3in across, it means a resolution of 342ppi, which is higher than the iPhone 5 and the Nokia Lumia 920.

Connectivity includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, but there's a lack of modern features such as 4G and wireless charging.Windows Phone 8 looks essentially the same across different handsets. The app store is a long way behind iOS and Android in both quantity and quality.

HTC provides some apps like Converter and Photo Enhancer, but Nokia provides many more and higher calibre apps.

We found battery life from the 6.7Wh fixed battery to be typically short. We got though days with light and heavy use, but either way the 8X needed charging overnight.

The HTC Windows Phone 8X is the best all-rounder of the Windows Phone 8 smartphones we've tried and earns itself three and a half stars.